Full transcript: Read Kristen Welker's interview with Trump

In her first interview as moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press," Kristen Welker sat down with former President Donald Trump for a wide-ranging interview to discuss topics including abortion, a potential running mate, his legal troubles, the war in Ukraine, interest rates and more.

Read a fact check of the interview here.

NBC News has also extended an invitation to President Joe Biden to sit down with Welker for an interview.

Read the full transcript below.

KRISTEN WELKER:

President Trump, welcome back to Meet the Press.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Thank you.

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to dive right into this. A lot to get to.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Good.

KRISTEN WELKER:

There are a number of things that make your campaign unprecedented. You are the first former president to run for re-election in more than a hundred years. You are facing four indictments. You have an incredibly significant lead in the GOP primary polls. But I want to ask you this, Mr. President: Why do you want to be president again?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, it’s a very simple answer, and I can give it very easily. It’s called: “Make America Great Again.” Our country is in serious trouble. I don’t think we’ve ever been so low in terms of, certainly opinion, world opinion and country opinion. People are devastated. They look at what’s happening with millions of people coming in, millions of illegal immigrants coming into our country, flooding our cities, flooding the countryside. I think the number is going to be 15 million people by the time you end this — by the end of this year, I think the real number’s going to be 15 million people. They come from prisons. They come from mental institutions, insane asylums. They say, “Sir, please don’t use that term,” but it’s true. They’re terrorists at a level — you know, it was very interesting, on NBC, I saw a poll, and I saw some statistics, and it said in 2019, there were no terrorists. They caught no terrorists. There was nothing that they saw. There was no anything. And now, this year, it’s a record number like they’ve never seen before. So, we did a great job at the border. We did a great job with the military. We did a great job with inflation. We had essentially no inflation. We had a great economy. And, we didn’t have an Afghanistan disaster. We were getting out, but we were going to get out with dignity and pride, not the way they got out. That was a surrender, and an embarrassment, and horrible. We gave $85 billion worth of equipment to the Taliban. We had death, so much death, and so much horrible destruction. And it was a terrible thing. I think it was the lowest point in the history of our country. Now, with all of that, we can change it, and we can make America great again. And that’s why I’m doing this. 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, and you have talked about a lot. We are going to delve into a number of issues — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Okay.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– you brought up. You talked about all the people coming across the border. Of course, a lot of families also coming across the border as well — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Sure.

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to talk to you about that a little bit later on. But first, let’s talk about the breaking news today. We learned just a short time ago that the president’s son, Hunter Biden, was indicted by a federal grand jury on three gun charges. Given that, Mr. President, can you continue to say that there are two systems of justice?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, I think there’s no question about it. He had a plea deal that was the deal of the century — the art of the deal. You could write a book on it. The art of the deal. And, all of a sudden, that was broken up by a judge who was able to — a brilliant judge, actually, who was able to see through what was happening. And it’s a sad situation. I mean, nobody should be happy about this. I’m not happy about it. Nobody is. It’s a very sad thing, and it’s so bad for our country. But, you know, if you think about it, I’ve been under investigation from the day I came down the escalator, and phony investigations, fake investigations, investigations that I beat every single time. Still under investigations. But it’s a very sad thing, and it’s a slippery slope — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

But Mr. President — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– and dangerous, very dangerous for our country.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But you talked about the plea deal, but now, Hunter Biden’s been indicted. He’s facing — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Yeah, sure, sure. 

KRISTEN WELKER:

– very serious charges. So doesn’t that undercut your entire argument that there are two systems of justice in this country?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, look, it’s one of 12 charges. There are 12 possible charges, and this — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

And he’s still under investigation.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– is the only charge that doesn’t affect his father.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, he’s still under investigation.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, sure, maybe. I mean, let’s see what happens. But this is the only charge that doesn’t affect Joe Biden. This was the gun charge. But gun charges are very serious. You know, people have had gun charges and gone to jail for a lot of, a lot of years. I pardoned some people who I thought it was just horrible what happened. But they were put in jail for many, many years, rappers and others. So, look, it’s a bad thing. But it’s one of 12, and it’s the one charge that doesn’t affect Joe Biden.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, of course, there’s no evidence that the president has any link to his son’s business dealings. Let me ask you, though — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, I don’t — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

– about a second — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– necessarily agree.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, there is no — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

He called in. I mean, he called in to all these meetings. He was calling in on the meetings. He was put on speakerphone and — every single day and — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

The witness who testified — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– literally many, many calls. And what about the fact that he got rid of the prosecutor for a billion dollars? They said — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, the witness who testified — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

“You don’t get rid of this prosecutor, we’re not giving you a billion dollars to Ukraine.” He said that. I mean, there are a lot of things here, Kristen.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, the witness who testified though, said that he never heard any discussion of business when President Biden was put on the phone. But let’s — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

But, wait, wait. You saw the prosecutor — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

– let’s talk about — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– thing on television, because I saw it on your network. He said, “You don’t get rid of this prosecutor, I’m not giving $1 billion.”

KRISTEN WELKER:

That was looked into, as well. And, as you know, there was never any wrongdoing — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Oh, come on. 

KRISTEN WELKER:

– determined. 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

If I ever said that —  

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s move on —                            

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– quid pro quo.                              

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s move on to what a second Trump term would look like.                                

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Sure.                            

KRISTEN WELKER:

When you launched your campaign in March, you told the crowd, quote, “I am your retribution.” What does that mean? What does that look like?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I think retribution is talking in terms of I have to protect people. What they’re doing to people is so horrible. They’re putting people in jail for long periods of time, firemen, policemen, accountants, even lawyers. They’re in prisons for years now and don’t even have trials in some cases. And if you look at antifa and other groups, practically nothing happened to them. They burned down Portland. They burned down Minneapolis. They took over Seattle. I mean, they literally took over a big chunk of the city. People died, and nothing happened to them. We have to protect all people.                                

KRISTEN WELKER:

But when you talk about retribution, are you talking about directing your attorney general to try to go after your political enemies?                                

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

When I talk about retribution, I’m talking about fairness. We have to treat people fairly. These people on January 6th, they went — some of them never even went into the building, and they’re being given sentences of, you know, many years.                               

KRISTEN WELKER:

Are you going to pardon those people —                                 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And nothing is happening.                               

KRISTEN WELKER:

– who’ve been convicted —                                 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, I’m going to look at them, and I certainly might if I think it’s appropriate. No, it’s a very, very sad thing. And it’s — they’re dividing the country so badly, and it’s very dangerous.                               

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, Mr. President, we’re going to delve into that a little bit later on, but I want to stay on this idea of what you mean by retribution. Are you looking to appoint an attorney general who will prosecute the people you tell them to prosecute? 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I’m looking to appoint an attorney general who’s going to be tough on crime and fair. Very simple. 

KRISTEN WELKER:

And go after your political enemies? 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, no. I would never do that. But Biden has done that. Look, Biden — these aren’t indictments against me. These are Biden indictments. This isn’t God coming down and very fairly said, “Oh, you spoke badly about an election.” The election was rigged. There’s no question about that. There’s so much proof on it. Even if you go to the more modern-day proof with the — they call it Twitter Files, FBI and Twitter, or you take a look at the Amazon stuff or the Google stuff, or you take a look at “2,000 Mules,” you take a look at all of the ballot stuffing that’s on tape, you take a look at the fact that the legislatures didn’t approve a lot of the things that were done in the elections, and they had to approve. And we could go on forever. We could go on forever. But, but no. I want somebody that’s going to be strong, respected, tough, and fair.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Just to go back to a couple of the points you said, the ballot stuffing. That’s something that’s been debunked.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It hasn’t been debunked. It’s on camera.

KRISTEN WELKER:

As you know, let’s — But I do want to keep moving forward.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Yeah, but, Kristen, it’s on camera. Hundreds — even thousands and thousands of people. You take a look. True the Vote. Take a look. It’s on camera. They have thousands of — 

 KRISTEN WELKER:

But Mr. President, you know Republican officials and top law enforcement officials, they have told you that that’s debunked. 

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I know, but, Kristen, you can’t say — They have thousands of pictures of people — I know you have to say that for your network, but you shouldn’t say it, because that’s the problem.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

But, Mr. President–

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

The news has lost such power.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s stay on track, though, Mr. President. Let’s stay on track with these questions —

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, but you’re saying– It hasn’t. We have thousands of essentially motion pictures of people stuffing the ballot boxes. Tens of thousands.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

But, Mr. President, they’re not stuffing the ballot boxes. And you’ve been told that by your top law enforcement officials. But let’s stay on track, because we have so much ground to cover. We have policy ground to cover, Mr. President. 

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You have people that went and voted in one place, another place, another place, as many as, I understand, 28 different places in one day with seven, eight, nine ballots apiece. They can’t do it anymore, because it would look too phony. These were professional people. They were stuffing the ballot boxes. It’s there. 

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President — 

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I mean, it’s there to see. A lot of people don’t like looking at it.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

 — you took your case to court in 60 different cases all across the country. You lost that. But let’s stay on track because we have so many —

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

We lost because the judges didn’t want to hear them.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, we have so many topics to cover.

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

But if this were ever before a court, we would win so easy. There is so much evidence that the election was rigged. And you may not even put this section on your show, and you’ll have to decide what you want to do. But people know it was rigged. Look, the media —

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, there’s no evidence of that. And you know there’s no evidence of that

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

When I first got involved in politics — 

 KRISTEN WELKER:

We have so many different topics — 

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Tremendous evidence.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to talk about what a potential —

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Kristen, let me ask you this.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President — 

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You agree there was Twitter Files, right?

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President —

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You agree there were 51 intelligence agents that lied? You agree with that?

 KRISTEN WELKER:

I’m not the one who’s being interviewed. Let’s stay on track —

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, no, but — I know, but that’s rigging the election.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Because I want to talk about policy because that’s what voters want to hear about, Mr. President. Let’s talk about what’s happening on Capitol Hill right now.

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Go ahead. Go ahead. 

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Speaker McCarthy announced that he was launching an impeachment inquiry this week into President Biden. Do you see this as a part of the retribution that you seek?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, not at all. I think, look, you look at the terrible things that have been happening with respect to Biden. Look at everything: Jamie Comer, Jim Jordan, who are fantastic people and very legitimate people. I watched Jamie Comer just a little while ago talking about a lot of different facets of what’s going on, and he was the one that said, “I guess there were — there were 12 things where it looks like it’s stone-cold guilty, and the gun charge is only one of the 12.” He said, “This is the only one that doesn’t implicate Joe Biden.”

 KRISTEN WELKER:

So, but my question for you: Did you talk to Speaker McCarthy about this House impeachment inquiry?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, no. I don’t talk to him like that.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Did you tell him that he should open a House impeachment inquiry?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, no. I don’t do that. I don’t think he’d do that. I mean, he wouldn’t do it based on me, no.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Did you talk to your Republican allies on Capitol Hill and say, “You should support this impeachment inquiry”?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, I don’t have to talk — they’re more proactive than I am. They think it’s terrible. I will say this: They think I was treated very unfairly. I mean, when I was impeached for a perfect phone call, and now it turned out to be perfect. I hope you will admit that, at least. Because I was right, 100% right. But I was impeached for a perfect phone call. And how sad that is. And we had 196 to nothing vote — Republicans. Very unusual for the Republican Party. I was so proud of them. A hundred ninety six. The entire House, not one person dissented. And then — other than Romney, who sort of gave me half a vote. But we had 100% in the Senate. People think I was treated very unfairly.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, the people who —

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And I know, I know I was treated —

 KRISTEN WELKER:

The people who voted for that impeachment say that the phone call that you reference was about a quid pro quo.

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It was perfect.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

But — 

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

My phone call was perfect. My phone call was saying, “Please investigate any crimes that you see.” And by the way, I’m mandated to do that as the president of the United States. And it was really, really a call to congratulate him on winning the election. But —

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, let’s —

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, what — when you talk about quid pro quo, please don’t talk about quid pro quo, because there was none in the call at all. Where there’s a quid —

 KRISTEN WELKER:

That was the heart — what I’m saying is —  

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Where there is a quid pro quo —

 KRISTEN WELKER:

– that was the heart of that impeachment. 

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– was when Biden said, very strongly, “We’re not going to give them the billion dollars unless they get rid of the prosecutor.” That’s a quid pro quo.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, let me take a step back here, because a lot of voters say what they want to talk about right now is your vision for the future.

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Sure.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

And I’ve been traveling to a lot of the early voting states, and they say that your focus on the past is a problem for them. What do you say to those voters?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I have no focus on the past except that you have to learn from history. You have to learn from the past. We had an election that was very, very terrible. It was a terrible thing for our country. And you have to learn from that. You can’t forget that and just go — now, with all of the things that we said, I had the best economy maybe in history.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

We’re going to talk about it next.

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Right.

KRISTEN WELKER:

So, let’s stay on track with — 

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I had the best economy in history, and I’m going to do it again. I had the best energy. We were energy independent, soon to be energy dominant. Now, we’re begging for energy. I mean, what they’ve done to this country, they’re destroying our country.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

We’re going to talk about the economy in just a minute. But before we move on from Capitol Hill, do you think Republican hardliners should abandon their threat to shut down the government over their spending priorities now that there is this impeachment inquiry?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No. I think if they don’t get a fair deal — we have to save our country. We have $35 trillion in debt. We have to save our country. You know, the — 

 KRISTEN WELKER:

So, you would shut down the government? You’d support that?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I’d shut down the government if they can’t make an appropriate deal, absolutely.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay. Let’s talk about the economy. And I want to start by talking about this big standoff between the auto workers and the big three auto manufacturers.

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Yeah.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

My question for you, Mr. President, whose side are you on in this?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I’m on the side of making our country great. The auto workers are not going to have any jobs when you come right down to it, because if you take a look at what they’re doing with electric cars, electric cars are going to be made in China. The auto workers are not going to have any — I’ll tell you what. The auto workers are being sold down the river by their leadership, and their leadership should endorse Trump. The reason is: You’ve got to have choice, like in school. I want school choice. I also want choice for cars. If somebody wants gasoline, if somebody wants all electric, they can do whatever they want. But they’re destroying the consumer, and they’re destroying the auto workers. The auto workers will not have any jobs, Kristen, because the — all of these cars are going to be made in China. The electric cars, automatically, are going to be made in China.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

So, let’s talk about UAW’s leadership. The president, Shawn Fain, has withheld his endorsement of President Biden. This is what he had to say about you. Quote, “Another Donald Trump presidency would be a disaster.” How would you win that endorsement?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, if that’s the case, I probably won’t win his — I don’t know the gentleman, but I know his name very well, and I think he’s not doing a good job in representing his union, because he’s not going to have a union in three years from now. Those jobs are all going to be gone, because all of those electric cars are going to be made in China. That’s what’s happening, number one. Number two, the electric cars are much more expensive and they don’t go far enough. So if somebody wants to take a little bit of a long — just like the trucks. If somebody wants to take a little bit of a long ride, let’s go to Maine, or let’s go to Kentucky from New York, let’s — you can’t do it. I mean, you have to stop all the time. They don’t go far enough. They’re very expensive. They have a lot of drawbacks. Now, with that being said, some people are going to want them. Some people are going to travel short distances. What they’re doing with our trucking industry is a disaster, because they want all electric trucks. And a truck on a — with a large tank, large gasoline or diesel capacity, can go up to 2,000 miles. An electric truck goes 300 miles. So, what are these guys going to do? They’re going to, they’re going to stop every 300 miles and recharge their truck and spend three hours?

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s move on and talk about another big-picture issue when it comes to the economy: the issue of interest rates, inflation, something that you’ve — 

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Yeah.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

– talked a lot about.

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Yeah.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

The Federal Reserve is obviously independent, but I wonder, Mr. President, if you are reelected, would you direct your Federal Reserve chair to lower interest rates?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well you know that I put a lot of pressure on him. It was outside pressure, because nobody knows whether or not you can really do that, but I did, because I thought his interest rates were too high. And he ultimately dropped his interest rates. The same gentleman, as you know. And — but it was a lot of pressure. I mean, I was very active on that. Right now, interest rates are very high. They’re too high. People can’t buy homes. They can’t do anything. I mean, they can’t borrow money. The banks don’t have the money. The banks aren’t lending the money. The banks — by the way, Chase Manhattan Bank, Bank of America, they discriminate against conservatives. It’s a disgrace, and they shouldn’t be allowed to, and I’m going to do something about that. But you take a look at banks throughout the country. And I think because of the regulators — but you take a look at Bank of America and Chase, they discriminate against conservatives and Republicans.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

What’s the evidence for that, Mr. President

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Oh, we’ll give you plenty of evidence — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay. All right, well, let’s stay on track with this question, though. So, just to be very clear, if you were reelected, would you direct your Fed chair to lower interest rates?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Depends. It depends.

KRISTEN WELKER:

You might.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Depends where inflation is. But I would get inflation down, because drill we must. We will be drilling for oil. We are going to become, again, energy independent. We are going to reduce our debt, because we’re also going to become energy dominant. You know, we were ready to go dominant within a matter of months. We would have been making so much money. We have more oil, I call it liquid gold, under our feet than any other country — Saudi Arabia, Russia. There’s no country with more — and it’s sweet. It’s the finest. We have the best. You know, we’re taking it from Venezuela. You know what it is? Tar.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Are you — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It’s the worst.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, are you going to appoint a new Fed chair if you’re reelected?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, I guess he would have two years left or something like that, so we’ll see.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay. All right.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You know the word jawboning? I did a lot of jawboning against him, and he ultimately lowered interest rates. We had low interest rates. We had the best housing market ever. We had people buying homes.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Economists — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Today, people can’t buy homes.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Economists are looking at some of the figures right now, the fact that the unemployment rate is at 3.8%, and they say it looks like the U.S. may not dip into a recession. What do you make of that assessment?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Oh, I don’t know. You got — people are going to — they say that, and then you end up in a depression. They say you’re going to do great, you end up bad, and the opposite. These — most of them don’t know what they’re doing. It’s a touch. It’s a feel. And I predicted a lot of markets. I predicted a lot of things, frankly, you know? They say, “Trump was right about everything.” I think that the way it’s going now, you’re going to have to — things are not going, right now, very well for the consumer. Bacon is up five times. Food is up horribly, worse than energy. Energy is starting to go up at a level that we haven’t seen in a long time, meaning a couple of years — since he took over, because I had energy prices very low. I had gasoline very low. We have to get the energy down, which they will never do. And they kept it artificial because they took the strategic reserves, which I had a lot to do with filling up for the first time ever. They took the strategic reserves, and he issued it to everybody so that he could keep the gas prices down. Now, strategic reserves are at the lowest level they’ve ever been at, and we need that for war.

KRISTEN WELKER:

And there are a lot of factors — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

We need that — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

– that have contributed to that.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, no. The big factor is the fact that he took that oil — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s talk about taxes.

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– he took that and he let — he wanted to have low gas prices for an election. And now, we have nothing left.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, there are a lot of factors, including global factors, that went into that. Let’s talk about taxes, though.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I don’t know why people stick up for him so much — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

You had — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– when he makes bad decisions, like you.

KRISTEN WELKER:

You — Mr. President — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I don’t know why, and I have a lot of respect for you, and you were very fair in the debate. But I don’t know why you and other people say, “Oh, it’s okay that he’s destroyed the strategic — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

No. Just — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– petroleum reserves.” I mean, why do you do that? Or, “It’s okay that he has open borders.” Somebody who was — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– in your position, not quite as good, said this morning, “Oh, having open borders is a wonderful thing.” I don’t know why. And I think that’s why the media — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Not sticking up --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– has lost so much credibility.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– no, we’re not sticking up, Mr. President, we’re just having a conversation. Let me talk to you about taxes and your differences with President Biden over taxes.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Sure.                                

KRISTEN WELKER:

He wants to raise corporate tax rates to 28%. It’s reported you want to lower them to 15%. Is that true?                                

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I’d like to lower them a little bit if we could. But, what I want to do is we have to get some income coming in. You know, when I lowered taxes, we took in more revenue.

KRISTEN WELKER:

To 15%, Mr. President? 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You know, that when I — depends. It depends on where we are at the time. You know, a lot happens in a year. But when I lowered taxes, I cut taxes tremendously, created tremendous jobs. So more importantly, we had more revenue with lower taxes than we did with higher taxes.

KRISTEN WELKER:

You also added $8 trillion to the national debt. Your GOP challenger Nikki Haley made that point saying, quote, “The truth is that Biden didn’t do this to us. Republicans did this to us.” Does she have a point? 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

So, we had a thing happen to us. We had the greatest economy in history, and then we got hit with Covid. And we had to keep this, this beautiful thing going. And if I didn’t do that, if we didn’t put some money — and nobody knew what Covid was. Remember this was a new thing that came in. Somebody said, “It’s dust coming in from China.” It came from China. They tried and denied it, or they tried for a little while, and we didn’t let it. It came from Wuhan actually, which now they agree. Everybody’s now agreeing that it came from Wuhan. I said that years ago. But we had to do things that were very severe. We had to let some money come out. We were going to — we were on the verge of doing something that was amazing. We were going to have energy at a level bigger than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined. That energy was going to be sold to Europe and all other places. The prices would have come down. We were going to make a fortune, and we were going to start paying off debt. Instead, we got hit with Covid. People didn’t need oil, because nobody was driving all over the world, I mean, frankly. It was a disaster. What China did to the world with Covid is something that we’re going to get to the bottom of. And they have to pay something back. You know, nobody can pay back the cost of all those lives and all the money that was lost. But nobody can back the lives and all of the damage that was caused, including China — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

But to Nikki Haley’s key argument, Mr. President — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

But you know what, they have to, they have to pay something back. They have to do something — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

– To Nikki Haley’s key argument, though, what do you say to her?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

What does Nikki Haley know? I mean, I know Nikki Haley very well. She said I’m the greatest president. She left, she said I’m the greatest president. Now she’s running for office, and she says something. Look, look, Nikki Haley doesn’t know anything about it. She’s a politician. She knows nothing about it. Very nice woman. Some people like that, I would say. But she left office. She said very strongly, “I will never run. He was a great president,” and then in some cases said, “the greatest president in my lifetime,” in one case said, “ the greatest president ever.” Now she’s running. Nikki Haley has nothing to do with this. We will — we were going to make a fortune off our energy. We were going to send the energy to Europe. Europe was going to pay us tremendous amounts of money. And I’ll tell you, you would have never had the Ukraine monster at all. It would’ve never happened. Russia would’ve never gotten — just by sheer force of personality. But beyond personality, what happened is when oil hit $100 a barrel, and by the way, it’s right there right now again, Putin makes a fortune on this war. You know, everybody said, “Oh, he can’t afford it.” If Biden allowed my policies to stay in place, oil would right now be at $40 a barrel, and Putin wouldn’t be able to afford the war.

KRISTEN WELKER:

We are going to get to the war in Ukraine, but first, I do want to talk about the issue of abortion which is — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Okay.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– important to a lot of voters all across the country. Just this week, women in Idaho and Tennessee, I don’t know if you saw this, filed suit against their states saying their lives were put at risk after they were denied abortion services, because of their states’ restrictive laws put in place after Roe was overturned. So my question for you, Mr. President, is: How is it acceptable in America that women’s lives are at risk, doctors are being forced to turn away patients in need, or risk breaking the law?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Ready? Little bit of a long answer. I hope you have time.

KRISTEN WELKER:

I hope you have time. I’m here for as long as you have. 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

So you have Roe v. Wade, for 52 years, people including Democrats wanted it to go back to states so the states could make the right. Roe v. Wade — I did something that nobody thought was possible, and Roe v. Wade was terminated, was put back to the states. Now, people, pro-lifers, have the right to negotiate for the first time. They had no rights at all, because the radical people on this are really the Democrats that say, after five months, six months, seven months, eight months, nine months, and even after birth you’re allowed to terminate the baby — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, Democrats aren’t saying that. I just have to, Democrats are not saying that.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Of course they do — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

That’s not true.                                

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You have a Virginia governor, previous governor, who said, “After the baby is born, you will make a determination, and if you want, you will kill that baby.” The baby is now born.                                 

KRISTEN WELKER:

But Mr. President, Democrats writ large are not talking about that. Only 1% of late-term abortions happen, and always in the state of —                                 

FMR PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Okay. They are the —

KRISTEN WELKER:

– crisis.

FMR PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– radical people — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay.

FMR PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– because nobody wants to see —                                 

KRISTEN WELKER:

But does —                                 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– abortion after five months and six months and seven months. And, now it’s going to — it gave people the belief — and pro-life, look, just so you understand, it’s pretty much 50/50. It’s a 50/50 issue, amazing. If you look at the charts, it’s been 49/51. It’s been like that for many years, goes both ways — 51 — both ways. Ready? I was able to do something which gave at least pro-life people a voice. Now it’s going to work out. Now, the number of months will be determined. 

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Can you answer this question?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And you’re going to have something where everybody comes together.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Does it bother you though that women say their lives are being put at risk? Do you feel you bear any responsibility, because as you say, you are responsible for having Roe v. Wade overturned.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

What’s going to happen, this is an issue that’s been going on for a long time. And it’s a very polarizing issue. Because of what’s been done, and because of the fact we brought it back to the states, we’re going to have people come together on this issue. They’re going to determine the time, because nobody wants to see five, six, seven, eight, nine months. Nobody wants to see abortions when you have a baby in the womb. I said, with Hillary Clinton when we had the debate, I made a statement, “Rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, you’re allowed to do that, and you shouldn’t be allowed to do that.”

KRISTEN WELKER:

Again, no one is arguing for that — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Again, listen, look — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

That’s not a part of anyone’s argument, Mr. President.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Look, the Democrats are able to kill the baby after birth.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let me talk to you — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Nobody wants that.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Democrats don’t want that either.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

So we’re going to come together — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

But let’s — I want to — I want to know what you want. I want to know what you’re going to do if you’re — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

We are going to come together — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Would you sign federal legislation that would ban abortion at 15 weeks?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, no. Let me just tell you what I’d do. I’m going to come together with all groups, and we’re going to have something that’s acceptable. Right now, to my way of thinking, the Democrats are the radicals, because after four and five and six months. But you have to say this, after birth. You have New York State and other places that passed legislation where you’re allowed to kill the baby after birth.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, I want to give voters who are going to be weighing in on this election —

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Yeah.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– a very clear sense of where you stand on — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I think they’ll — I think they’re all going to like me. I think both sides are going to like me.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But, let me, let me — but Mr. President — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

What’s going to have to happen is you’re going to have to — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, let me just ask this question, please--

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Kristen, you’re asking me a question. What’s going to happen is you’re going to come up with a number of weeks or months. You’re going to come up with a number that’s going to make people happy. Because 92% of the Democrats don’t want to see abortion after a certain period of time.

KRISTEN WELKER:

If a federal ban landed on your desk if you were reelected, would you sign it at 15 weeks — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Are you talking about a complete ban?

KRISTEN WELKER:

A ban at 15 weeks.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, people, people are starting to think of 15 weeks. That seems to be a number that people are talking about right now.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Would you sign that?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I would sit down with both sides and I’d negotiate something, and we’ll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years. I’m not going to say I would or I wouldn’t. I mean, DeSanctus is willing to sign a five-week and six-week ban.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Would you support that? You think that goes too far? 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake. But we’ll come up with a number, but at the same time, Democrats won’t be able to go out at six months, seven months, eight months and allow an abortion. And Kristen, you have to look at this, because you said “no.” You have some states that are allowed to kill the child after birth, and you can’t allow that.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But Mr. President, again, no one is calling for a child to be killed after birth. No one is calling for that to be allowed — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

But you have legislation — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

But let me just ask you — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Kristen, you have legislation in certain states where it’s allowed.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

The governor of Virginia, previous governor, who was a whack job — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Previous governor.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I call him the Michael Jackson governor.

KRISTEN WELKER:

No one’s talking about that as part of their platform — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

That governor — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to know what you want — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Excuse me, that governor said you can kill the baby after birth.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But Mr. President, this is about what you would do if you were reelected. As you know, you upset some anti — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

We will agree to a number of weeks, which will be where both sides will be happy. We have to bring the country together on this issue.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, when you talk about negotiating, I think a lot of people think to themselves, this is an issue that they care about deeply in their hearts — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I care about it too. Oh, I care about it too.

KRISTEN WELKER:

And they know where they stand, and they want to know where you stand. As you know, some anti-abortion groups are really looking for some clarity from you. So let me just ask you to put a fine point on this. Should the federal government impose any abortion restrictions, or should it be completely left up to the states?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, I don’t think you should have — I don’t think you should be allowed to have abortions well into a pregnancy.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But what about the question I just asked you — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

We’re going to agree — no — we’re going to agree to a number of weeks or months or however you want to define it. And both sides are going to come together and both sides — both sides, and this is a big statement, both sides will come together. And for the first time in 52 years, you’ll have an issue that we can put behind us.

KRISTEN WELKER:

At the federal level?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It could be state or it could be federal. I don’t frankly care.

KRISTEN WELKER:

So you’re not committed to a ban at the federal level.    

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I will say this. Everybody, including the great legal scholars, love the idea of Roe v. Wade terminated so it can be brought back to the states. 

KRISTEN WELKER:

It sounds like that’s what you think too, that it should remain a state issue —  

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, I, I would, I would say this: From a pure standpoint, from a legal standpoint, I think it’s probably better, but I can live with it either way. It’s much more important, the number of weeks is much more important. But something will happen with the number of weeks, the amount of time, after which you can’t do it. And you know what? The most — the most powerful people that are anti-abortion are okay with that now. And you know what? They weren’t okay with that even a year ago.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Your former vice president, Mike Pence, believes that a fetus should have constitutional rights. Do you believe that, Mr. president?             

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, Mike Pence said something about 15 weeks too, which was a big change for Mike Pence, because Mike Pence had no exceptions. I have exceptions, by the way. I think people should have exceptions. I think if it’s rape or incest or the life of the mother, I think you have to have exceptions. It’s very important.               

KRISTEN WELKER:

Does a fetus have constitutional rights, Mr. president?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And a lot of people, when they don’t have exceptions — now, I will tell you that I think most people, most Republicans are willing. You go: life of the mother, rape, incest. I think most of them are there.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But should a fetus —  

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

That’s a big statement.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– have constitutional rights, Mr. president?                         

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, I don’t know, I don’t know what he’s saying, because before, he wanted, you know, you couldn’t have abortions at all — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

But what are you saying? What do you think — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Now all of a sudden — excuse me — now all of a sudden he’s saying 15 weeks. I said, “Wow, where did that come from? That’s a radical change.” Look, something is going to happen that’s going to be good for everybody. And that’s what I’m — I’m almost like a mediator in this case. They wanted Roe v. Wade terminated because it was inappropriate. We got it done. Something is going to happen. It’s going to be a number of weeks. Something is going to happen where the both sides are going to be able to come together. And then we’ll be able to go onto other things, like, the economy, our military — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Are you saying a federal ban with exceptions, is that what you’re saying?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

What I say is very simple, because you can’t put words in my mouth like that — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

I just want to understand. 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– because you’ve been hearing me talk about this--

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– issue — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Yeah.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– and I think talk about it very productively. It could be a state ban, it could be a federal ban, but Democrats want that too. Democrats don’t want to see abortion in the seventh month, okay. I speak to a lot of Democrats. They want a number. There is a number, and there’s a number that’s going to be agreed to, and Republicans should go out and say the following. They — cause, I think the Republicans speak very inarticulately about this subject. I watch some of them without the exceptions, et cetera, et cetera. I said, “Other than certain parts of the country, you can’t — you’re not going to win on this issue. But you will win on this issue when you come up with the right number of weeks.” Because Democrats don’t want to be radical on the issue, most of them, some do. They don’t want to be radical on the issue. They don’t want to kill a baby in the seventh month or the ninth month or after birth. And they’re allowed to do that, and you can’t do that.

KRISTEN WELKER:

I have a very robust foreign policy section to get to. I do want to give you an opportunity to talk about some of your legal challenges, so if we could do that first, and then we’ll move on to foreign policy.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Sure.

KRISTEN WELKER:

You are facing four indictments, 91 — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Biden indictments. Excuse me, Biden political indictments. He said to the attorney general — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

He has said he’s had nothing to do with this. There’s no proof of that--

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– he said to the attorney general, “Indict him.” They put in the New York DA case — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, there’s no proof of that, Mr. President.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– which everybody admits isn’t even a case.

KRISTEN WELKER:

There’s no proof of that, Mr. President.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Excuse me, but they’re Biden indictments — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

You know there’s no proof of that.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You know what? He started something that’s a very slippery slope. He said, “I’ve got a guy that’s beating me in the polls.” I’m beating all the Republicans by a lot, and I’m beating him by a lot. “I have somebody that’s beating me in the polls. Indict him.” And they, not only that, they took their top person in the Department of Justice and put him into the Manhattan DA’s office. They’re dealing with Fani Willis all the time.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, the attorney general — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

These are political indictments.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– appointed a special counsel to investigate you, President Biden, and President Biden’s son, Hunter, who was also indicted today. But I do want to move — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

But President Biden does not fall within the Presidential Records Act. And frankly, you don’t ever hear anything about the special counsel. But they gave me this deranged person named Jack Smith. He’s a deranged lunatic. We — I fall within the Presidential Records Act. It’s very simple. It’s a civil thing. In fact, the New York Times of all institutions did a story, and it was headlined, “Please, please, please, Mr. President, could we take a look at the documents.” And they said in the story that “The only way you can get documents from a president is if you go there and say please.” Because this is civil. And they won’t even have a lawsuit. They may have a civil lawsuit at most, but they probably don’t even have a civil lawsuit. And this should never have been an indictment. There’s no criminal. Now there is criminal for Joe Biden, because he was a senator and he was a vice president. And as a senator and a vice president — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, the charges you’re facing don’t have anything to do with the Presidential Records Act. But let me ask my question so we can get to foreign policy.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

But wait a minute. This comes within the Presidential Records Act — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Lets — let me just ask — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

That’s what it’s about. It’s about records.        

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let me just ask these questions, and then we can move on to some other topics. You are facing four indictments, 91 felony charges.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

If you would say it properly, I’m facing four Biden indictments. He told the Justice Department to indict him, or Merrick Garland said, “Let’s indict him.”

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let me ask you this, Mr. President — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

They indicted their political opponent — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

I just want to hear from you on this. I want to know what’s in your head. When you go to bed at night, do you worry about going to jail?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, I don’t really. I don’t even think about it. I’m built a little differently I guess, because I have had people come up to me and say, “How do you do it, sir? How do you do it?” I don’t even think about it. These are corrupt people that I’m dealing with. They’re destroying our country. I don’t even think about it. All I think about is making the country great, making America great. Look, these are political, these are banana republic indictments. These are third-world indictments. The president of the United States sees how we’re doing. We have a movement the likes of which has never happened in this country before. And you see it with the polls. I mean, I’m up on these people by 60 points and 59 points. And, I don’t mean I’m at 59, I’m leading them by 59. You almost say, like, “Why are they campaigning?” Asa Hutchinson, he’s at zero. Christie’s at two. Other ones are at one. DeSanctimonious is at nine. I just see a poll come — I mean, I’m leading him by 60 points.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And you say, “Why are they doing that?” But here’s what they did. They saw this happening, and he went to the attorney general of the United States, and he told them, “Indict Trump.”

KRISTEN WELKER:

There is just no evidence of that, Mr. President — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Oh why? Because you mean he’s honest — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

But let’s, let’s stay on track — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Look at all the lies he’s told--

KRISTEN WELKER:

But Mr. President, I want to talk about you.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Kristen, wait a minute, wait, wait. Could I say one thing? Look at all the lies he’s told over the last couple of weeks. He said he was at the World Trade Center and he wasn’t. He said he flew airplanes, right? He didn’t. He said he drove trucks, and he didn’t. Everything he says is, like, a lie. It’s terrible.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, I want — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Even his handicap in golf, he said he’s a six — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to stick — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

He’s not a six.

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to stay focused on you, for the purposes of this interview — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Okay.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– okay? Because it’s important that we hear from you about all of this. Tell me — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, I’d like you to, but you keep interrupting me.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Tell me — Mr. President, tell me what you see when you look at your mugshot?                                

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I see somebody that loves this country, and me, that loves this country. I see tremendous unfairness. I think very few people would have been able to handle what I handled. When I was coming down the escalator with Melania, I was already under investigation, because they saw how well I was doing in the polls. And it just got worse and worse, and we caught them. We said, “They were spying on our campaign.” It turned out to be true. They had the fake dossier. That turned out to be true. It was paid for by the Democratic party. It was all fiction. All of these things happened. Impeachment hoax number one, impeachment hoax number two. I’ve been treated very badly. And, I’ve won every single time. When you say, “Do I sleep?” I sleep, I sleep. Because I truly feel that in the end, we’re going to win. I think we’re going to win an election the likes of which nobody’s ever seen before. I don’t think anything’s going to stop it. Nothing’s going to stop it, because people see what’s happened to our country. We’re not respected in the world. Look at other countries. Look at what’s happened. Everybody’s going to the side of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

We’re going to talk about that. Mr. President, I want to — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, no. China is taking over the world — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

– I want to delve into foreign policy, but let’s get through this. And then I want to talk to you about all of those — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Okay.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– issues you just talked about, Mr. President. By the way, do you think your former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, is still loyal to you? He just pleaded not guilty in the Georgia case. 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, I hope he’s loyal to me. 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Do you worry about him flipping? 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I mean, I didn’t do anything wrong — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Do you worry about him —

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I didn’t do anything wrong — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay, let’s talk about Georgia. I want to talk about that phone call that you made to Georgia’s secretary of state — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Sure. 

 KRISTEN WELKER:

– a Republican, Brad Raffensperger — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

By the way, that was even more perfect than my call to — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s talk about.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– the president of Ukraine. 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay.

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It was a perfect call. Just before you start, many top legal scholars, almost everyone, but many top legal have analyzed that phone call. That was a phone call made in front of, I guess seven or eight lawyers. Brad Raffensperger, the head, who by the way last week said, I didn’t do anything wrong. He said “that was a negotiation.” Brad Raffensperger, who I was dealing with, I appreciate that he said that. But he said last week, I didn’t do anything wrong — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s talk about it so we can move on. You said in the call — 

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, no, let me just tell you one other thing. When I spoke, I knew I was probably being taped. I didn’t ask, but I knew I was probably being taped. You know, they illegally tape me, because they tape me in Florida. It’s a two-party state. You know that, right? So they illegally taped the call, but forget about that for a second. I knew that there were many lawyers on the phone from the other side, from — there were many people, there were many people on the phone. What I told them, I said “The election was rigged.” I said all sorts of things about the election, which I believe — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

And they told you it wasn’t.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– it 100%.

KRISTEN WELKER:

They told you it wasn’t — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, I believe, no, I have all the facts. Look, I have all the facts. In one way, I look for a trial because it was so dishonest, okay, so rigged, and such a dangerous thing for our country. We have to have borders, and we have to have fair elections. We have neither. But let me just say — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to talk about the border, I want to talk about the border but we have to get through this — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– when I spoke in front of Brad Raffensperger, who again last week said I didn’t do anything wrong. 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, it sounded like you were asking — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Brad Raffensperger said “it was a negotiation.” 

KRISTEN WELKER:                             

– for him to come up with 11,000 votes — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, and you know that. You’re terrible when you say this. You’re off to a bad start, because what I said is very simple. “I got cheated in this election.”

KRISTEN WELKER:

He told you you didn’t.

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

“And all I need is, like, 11,000,” whatever the number was. 

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Brad Raffensperger, who’s a Republican — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I got cheated in the election — 

 KRISTEN WELKER:             

– said “You didn’t get cheated.”

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, he said that, but we have to go and see. You know, there’s some court cases out there. We want to go into Fulton County, and we want to see the real votes. And it’s so hard — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

He said “they looked into it.” The election had been certified three times — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

They can look into it. I don’t want them. I want to look into it. I would say that if we got access — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, the election had been cer--

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– to the votes, which we’re close to getting in court, as you know. If we got access to those votes, if we look in, you will find numbers that you wouldn’t believe. More importantly, though, let me just say this.

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to get through this, Mr. President — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Kristen, you have to just hear me out for one second.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– so we can get to the foreign policy section.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

We had, because you say something and then you want to go on to the next subject. We had many people on the line when I said, I spoke for an hour. I knew that many people were on the line. I knew that it was– who is, who is — I happen to be a really smart person. Who is going to be talking badly when I have lawyers and many other people on the line? Nobody’s going to say something bad. But if it was bad, why didn’t they say, “Sir, that was very inappropriate of you to say?” Nobody said that. Nobody said, “Sir.” It was only a long time after the call that somebody said, “Oh, maybe he said something wrong.”

KRISTEN WELKER:

They said — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

This is a hoax. 

KRISTEN WELKER:

– “Sir, there’s no evidence that it’s been rigged.”

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

This is a hoax just like Russia, Russia, Russia. Just like Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine. This is a hoax. Let me tell you, I spoke to them on the phone, and it was left, I think, something to the effect, “Okay, we’ll get together tomorrow.” Nobody said, “Sir, you shouldn’t speak.” If I said something incorrect, one of the lawyers for the State of Georgia, which I love, one of those lawyers would have said, “Sir, you’ll have to take that back. That’s an inappropriate statement.”

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, the Republican secretary of state — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Nobody said that.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– said there was no evidence to fraud. He said he looked into it. The election had been certified three times when you made the call — 

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Okay, you’re, you’re talking about a different subject. If I said something wrong on the call, he or one of his many lawyers that were on the call would have said, “It’s inappropriate what you just said.” Nobody said that. We had a normal phone call. This became — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

They said, “There’s no evidence of fraud.”

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

He also said, “I did nothing wrong,” last week.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Do you have any regrets about that call --

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No. None --

KRISTEN WELKER:

– whatsoever?    

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

None whatsoever.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I called to complain about an election.            

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And I have every right to do that. Would you say --

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let me --

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Do you think I have a right to complain about an election?

KRISTEN WELKER:

You have a right to take your case to court, which you did 60 times.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, no. I didn’t do it 60 times --

KRISTEN WELKER:

And you didn’t win.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

They wouldn’t hear it, based on all sorts of crazy -- they wouldn’t hear it. We never got — we never got a trial. Judges would look at stuff, say, “I’m not getting involved.” They didn’t want to get involved.

\KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s keep moving, so we get through all of this.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

If you take a look at the evidence, we have so much evidence. If you take a look at the evidence, even you I could convince.

KRISTEN WELKER:

You were going to hold that press conference, but you never did, with the evidence.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, because I’m using it in my court case instead.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay. I want to ask you about the case related to Mar-a-Lago. A new charge suggests you asked a staffer to delete security camera footage so it wouldn’t get into the hands of investigators. Did you do that?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

That’s false. 

KRISTEN WELKER:

It’s false? 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

That’s false, but let me tell you --

KRISTEN WELKER:

Would you testify to that under oath?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Sure. I’m going to. I’ll testify --

KRISTEN WELKER:

You’ll testify to that under oath?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It’s a fake --

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– charge by this deranged lunatic prosecutor, who lost in the Supreme Court nine to nothing. And he tried to destroy lots of lives. He’s a lunatic. So it’s a fake charge. But, more importantly, the tapes weren’t deleted. In other words, there was nothing done to them. And they were my tapes. I could’ve fought them. I didn’t even have to give them the tapes, I don’t think. I think I would have won in court. When they asked for the tapes, I said, “Sure.” They’re my tapes. I could have fought them. I didn’t even have to give them. Just so you understand, though, we didn’t delete anything. Nothing was deleted.

KRISTEN WELKER:

So that’s false. The people who testified --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Number one, the statement is false. Much more importantly, when the tapes came, and everybody says this, they weren’t deleted. We gave them 100%.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay. Let’s --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And, and, and, just so you know, I offered them. I said, “If you want to look at tapes, you can look at them.”

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s move on to January 6th and the allegations that you tried to subvert the election. And, again, I just want to give you a chance to talk about this because voters want to hear about this. The most senior lawyers in your own administration and on your campaign told you that after you lost more than 60 legal challenges that it was over. Why did you ignore them and decide to listen to a new outside group of attorneys —

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Because I didn’t respect them --

KRISTEN WELKER:

You’d hired them.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– as lawyers. Sure. But that doesn’t mean -- you hire them, you never met these people. You get a recommendation. They turn out to be RINOs, or they turn out to be not so good. In many cases, I didn’t respect them. But I did respect others. I respected many others that said the election was rigged. Look. We have many people, and it’s my choice — I happen to, I happen to know that the election was rigged. Okay? I know it because I have so much, there’s so much proof of ballot stuffing. You know, It’s amazing. Right just a little while ago, in terms of the modern history, where the 51 intelligence agents said very specifically they lied. They all lied. And they said about the laptop that it was Russia disinformation. That was a lie. That had a huge impact on the election. In fact, the pollsters say over 10 points. I didn’t need 10 points. I needed one-tenth of a point. If you take a look at the Twitter Files, with the F.B.I. and Twitter dealing, that had a huge impact on the election. Just those things. But in addition to that --

KRISTEN WELKER:

When you say you needed --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– you have ballot stuffing. You have a lot of other things.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

When you say you needed one-tenth of a point, you needed one-tenth of a point --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I needed a very small --

KRISTEN WELKER:

– to win?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I think somebody said 22,000 votes.

KRISTEN WELKER:

To win?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Yeah. If you divide it among the states, it was 22,000 votes, something to that effect --

KRISTEN WELKER:

To — to win the election?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Yeah. If I would’ve had another 22,000 votes over the whole -- but, look. They rigged the election --

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Is --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

If you look at Pennsylvania --

 KRISTEN WELKER:

But Mr. President, you’re saying you needed --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

If you looked at all the stuff --

KRISTEN WELKER:

– more votes to win the election, are you acknowledging you didn’t win?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Excuse me. If you look at all of the statistics, all of the votes, they say 22,000 votes. Over millions and millions of votes, 22,000 votes. So when they do Twitter Files, or when they have 51 intelligence agents come out and lie that the laptop from hell was Russia disinformation, and now they find out it’s not, but they knew that at the time. They cheated on the election in that way too.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

I — I just want to be clear, though. Are you saying you needed those votes in order to win? Are you acknowledging you didn’t win?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I’m not acknowledging. No. I say I won the election.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay. Even though, again, your lawyers told you, you did not.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, no. No.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Did you, just let me understand --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Some people told me that.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

But many people told me the opposite.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

You called some of your outside lawyers — you said they had crazy theories. Why were you listening to them? Were you listening to them because they were telling you what you wanted to hear?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You know who I listen to? Myself. I saw what happened. I watched that election, and I thought the election was over at 10 o’clock in the evening.

KRISTEN WELKER:

You were listening to your instincts?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

My instincts are a big part of it. That’s been the thing that’s gotten me to where I am, my instincts. But I also listen to people. There are many lawyers. I could give you many books. There are books that are written on how the election was rigged. There are numerous books that were written on how the election was rigged.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Just to be clear, were you listening to your lawyers’ advice, or were you listening to your own instincts?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I was listening to different people. And when I added it all up, the election was rigged. There are books that are written --

KRISTEN WELKER:

Were you calling the shots though?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

In fact, Mollie Hemingway wrote a great book --

 KRISTEN WELKER:

But were you calling — 

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– called “Rigged” --

 KRISTEN WELKER:

– the shots ultimately?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Excuse me. Mollie Hemingway, who’s highly respected and great, she wrote a book, a bestselling book called “Rigged.”

KRISTEN WELKER:

Were you calling the shots, though, Mr. President, ultimately?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

As to whether or not I believed it was rigged? Oh, sure.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It was my decision. But I listened to some people. Some people said that. Like, guys like Bill Barr, who was a stiff, but he wasn’t there at the time. But he didn’t do his job because he was afraid. You know what he was afraid of? He was afraid of being impeached. He was petrified to be impeached. And he — how do you not get impeached? Don’t do anything.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

We’ve heard so much, Mr. President, about that day, the actual day of January 6th, from other people. But, quite frankly, we haven’t heard from you about your own perceptions of how that day unfolded --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Sure.

KRISTEN WELKER:

We talked about — we’ve heard you talk about the rally. And I’m curious about what happened when you got back to the White House. I know you spent most of the day in the dining room. What were you doing in there? How were you watching it unfold?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

So, let me just tell you about January 6th. First of all, I had very little to do with January 6th. I was asked to speak. And I was the president of the United States. I’m allowed to do that. But I was asked to speak. Other groups, I think it was women’s groups, a lot of people were involved in that. And it was incredible. It was incredible. It was, I think, the largest group I’ve ever spoken. You never see that. You never see pictures of the group that I was speaking to. I think it was the most people I’ve -- and I’ve spoken to some very large groups. Hundreds of thousands of people were there, and it was a beautiful, beautiful sight. But just so you understand, I went, and I spoke. And, by the way, peacefully and patriotically. And all of that, which wasn’t reported, which wasn’t reported, but when I spoke, I have had senators go up, I said — they said, “I’ve never heard you speak so moderately. You were very moderate.”

KRISTEN WELKER:

What happened when you got back to the White House, though, Mr. President?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, wait. Wait. Let me just say. So I spoke. And then I went back. I wanted to go down peacefully and patriotically to the Capitol. Secret Service, who I have great respect for, said, “Sir, it’s better if you don’t do that. It could be unsafe.” Because — they didn’t mean because of riots because, you know, it takes one guy with bad intentions, okay. So I didn’t have a dispute with them. You know you had that one person said I grabbed the man around the neck. Actually, I wish I was so strong to be able to do that. These are all tough guys, smart guys --

KRISTEN WELKER:

So you dispute that account?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Dispute it? Who wouldn’t dispute it? She’s — the craziest account I’ve ever heard. You mean that I was in “The Beast,” and she said I was in “The Beast,” and the Secret Service didn’t want -- so I took a guy who was like a black belt in karate and grabbed his neck and tried to choke him —

KRISTEN WELKER:

What happened --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

How ridiculous. Just so you understand, and I have great respect for Secret Service, by the way. They’re fantastic. The Secret Service said, “Sir, it would be better if you didn’t.” I said, “I’d love to do it.” They said, “It would be better.” And so we went back to the White House. Just so you understand: I spoke. I made a very nice speech. I wasn’t Maxine Waters that calls for people’s death, and some of these — take a look at what these other people say. It’s so --

KRISTEN WELKER:

What happened when you got --

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– ridiculous.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– to the White House, though? Where did you watch all of the events --

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, let me tell you --

KRISTEN WELKER:

– unfold?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– much more importantly, I offered two days before — two or three days before — 10,000 soldiers, right? And they were going to go — because everybody was telling me, I knew it was going to be big in terms of the crowd, because everybody I spoke to said, “Hey. I’m going down on January 6th. I’m going down. I’m going to listen to your speech,” et cetera. And there were other speak -- I wasn’t the only speaker. There were many speakers. But wait a minute. I offered 10,000 people to the mayor of Washington D.C. and Nancy Pelosi, both of them, Nancy Pelosi and to the mayor of Washington. And they turned it down flat. And the police commissioner was very nasty about it to her. And he testified. And here’s what happened. The January 6th un-Select Committee of thugs and horrible people, the un-Select Committee destroyed all the evidence. Did you know that --

KRISTEN WELKER:

They say they didn’t do that. We did ask them. We did ask the January 6th Committee.

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, they announced that they destroyed --

KRISTEN WELKER:

They said they didn’t do that.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– and deleted most of the evidence.

KRISTEN WELKER:

They say some of the evidence is still under review. I want to know what --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Wait. Wait. Wait.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to know about your perspective. Mr. President--

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, Kristen.

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to ask about you, though --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

They put out an announcement that they destroyed the evidence. And they destroyed all the stuff having to do with Nancy Pelosi. And they wouldn’t let her testify. We said, “Why isn’t she testify” — you know it was a whole rigged deal — “Why isn’t she testifying?” I offered them 10,000 soldiers --

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– she turned them down.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– I want to know what you --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You know that she’s in charge of security --

KRISTEN WELKER:

– did on that day. I want to know. You’re the President of the United States, though --                

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Kristen, she’s in charge of security --

KRISTEN WELKER:

Tell me how you watched this all unfold. Were you in the dining room watching TV?                

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I’m not going to tell you. I’ll tell people later at an appropriate time. Just so you understand, however --

KRISTEN WELKER:

What did you do when the Capitol was --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And I made beautiful statements.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– under attack, though —

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Let me just tell you --

KRISTEN WELKER:

– in the moment that the Capitol was under attack?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Did you see the statements I made in the Oval Office and just outside of the Oval Office?

KRISTEN WELKER:

Absolutely. I was there that day.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

“Go home. Our police are great. We love our police. We love everybody. Go home.”

KRISTEN WELKER:

That was --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

This was --

KRISTEN WELKER:

That was before --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– a beautiful statement --

KRISTEN WELKER:

That was at 4 o’clock in the afternoon --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

When that statement was made --

KRISTEN WELKER:

– more than --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– I don’t know --

KRISTEN WELKER:

– three hours after the attack --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

But there --

KRISTEN WELKER:

– started --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– but there were tweets that were put out --

KRISTEN WELKER:

– Mr. President --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– before that.

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to know who you called on that day.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

By the way, Nancy Pelosi --

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to talk about that day.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I don’t have -- why would I tell you that? Listen. Nancy Pelosi --

KRISTEN WELKER:

Don’t want to talk about that?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– was in charge of security. She turned down 10,000 soldiers. If she didn’t turn down the soldiers, you wouldn’t have had January 6th.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Did you call military or law enforcement?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

What?

KRISTEN WELKER:

Did you call military or law enforcement at the moment the Capitol was under attack?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I’m not going to tell you anything. I told --

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Let me put it this way. I behaved so well. I did such a good job. Nancy Pelosi turned down 10,000 soldiers. If she didn’t do that --

KRISTEN WELKER:

But Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have the authority that you had as commander and chief, though.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– and now I understand — I understand that the police testified against -- listen to me, Kristen. Listen to me. I understand that the police testified against her — the chief, very strongly against her. Capitol Police, they’re great people. They testified against her. And they burned all the evidence. Okay? They burned all the evidence.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

They destroyed all the evidence about Nancy Pelosi.

KRISTEN WELKER:

What do you say to people who wonder why you -- you, as commander in chief, you have authorities that Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have, as commander in chief.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, no. She has authority over the Capitol.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Why didn’t you send help in that moment, though?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Uh, frankly, just so you understand, I assumed that she took care of it. She turned down --

KRISTEN WELKER:

But when you realized that the National Guard wasn’t coming? When help wasn’t coming?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, you don’t realize anything until quite a while. National Guard are not coming. I asked her to be there three days in advance. And she turned it down.

KRISTEN WELKER:

She says that that request was never officially made, just so you know. 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Oh, stop it. Let me just tell you --

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let me ask you about pardons --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

The mayor of D.C. —

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

The mayor of D.C. gave us a letter, saying that she turns it down, okay? We have it. Nancy Pelosi also was asked, and she turned it down. The police commissioner of Capitol Police —

KRISTEN WELKER:

I’m talking about the day of, though.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Wait a minute.                

KRISTEN WELKER:

Yeah.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Capitol Police said that he wanted it. And Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t accept it. She’s responsible for January 6th.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s — Mr. President.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Nancy Pelosi is responsible. And the J6 Committee refused to interview her.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, you’re the president though. You have — You have authorities that no one else has, as the commander in chief. Do you think you showed leadership on that day?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Yes. Absolutely. I did.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And I showed calm. Nancy Pelosi is responsible for the security. And she did a terrible job. And, by the way --

KRISTEN WELKER:

Looking forward--

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– from what I understand, they burned all the evidence.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay. She says she never got an official request. They say they didn’t.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Oh, she’s full of it.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But that’s what you’re saying.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Really?

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let talk about --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And her daughter taping her. Her daughter happened to be documenting what --

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s talk about potential pardons --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

A documentary worker just happened to be there taping her at the time?                

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s talk about potential pardons because a lot of your supporters are wondering about that. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in jail. Now that you know what the sentence is, 22 years in jail, will you give him a pardon?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Are you ready?

KRISTEN WELKER:

Will you give other Proud Boys a pardon?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I don’t know him. I never met him. I never heard of him until I started reading this stuff.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Will you pardon him?                

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

But I want to tell you: He and other people have been treated horribly. Antifa killed people, and those guys didn’t even get tried in many cases.

KRISTEN WELKER:

There’s no evidence Antifa was there.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

They put these guys in jail for 17, 18, and 22 years. They didn’t kill anybody. Some of them never even went into the Capitol. Some of them weren’t even in D.C. And they got a 22- or a 17-year sentence. 16, 18, 15, 22.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, more than 1,000 people have been charged, Mr. President.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Yeah. 1,000 people. How many people — let me ask you this. How many people were charged for destroying Portland? How many people were charged for burning down the police precinct and the courthouse in Minneapolis?

KRISTEN WELKER:

Will you give him a pardon? Will you pardon him, though? Will you pardon him?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I’d certainly look at it. I’d look at that. And I’d look at all the other people that have suffered, the J6 people.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, let me ask one final question --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

People — people that went there.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– and let’s move on to foreign policy.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

That didn’t even go into the building have suffered gravely. And you have to say one system of justice, right? You take a look at what’s gone on in Portland. They burned down the city. The city is in shambles to this day. The store owners don’t even rebuild storefronts anymore. They put up two-by-fours.

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to move on to foreign policy, Mr. President.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

But why do you do that?    

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let me just ask you one more question. 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Why do you give me a horrible question and then you don’t let me answer it? You’re off to a bad start, I’m telling you.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, I just — I want to make sure we get to talk about foreign policy as well.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, but I don’t mind. I have all the time in the world.

KRISTEN WELKER:

You do? Okay.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I have all the time in the world. Why is it that the people, Antifa people, and very bad people, that burned down Portland, burned down Minneapolis, burned down so much — and New York City, what they did in New York City — and they were barely charged? And, yet, the people in Washington in some cases never even went into the building. They’ve been persecuted. They’ve been persecuted.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, the people who were charged on January 6th, some of them were charged with sedition. Some of them were charged for violating the Capitol —

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And we’ll take a look at everything. But many of these people have been persecuted, what they’ve done to them.                 

KRISTEN WELKER:

They — your supporters? Your supporters, you’re talking about?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And they didn’t do this to the people that burned down — you take a look at Portland. It’s like a burned-down hulk of a city, including the federal courthouse.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, if you were re-elected, would you pardon yourself?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I could’ve pardoned myself. Do you know what? I was given an option to pardon myself. I could’ve pardoned myself when I left. People said, “Would you like to pardon yourself?” I had a couple of attorneys that said, “You can do it if you want.” I had some people that said, “It would look bad, if you do.” Because I think it would look terrible. I said, “Here’s the story. These people are thugs, horrible people, fascists, Marxists, sick people. They’ve been after me from the day I came down the escalator with Melania. And I did a great job as president.” People are — great economy, great jobs, great this, great that, rebuilt the military, Space Force, everything. We — I could go on forever. Let me just tell you. I said, “The last thing I’d ever do is give myself a pardon.” I could’ve given myself a pardon. Don’t ask me about what I would do. I could’ve. The last day, I could’ve had a pardon done that would’ve saved me all of these lawyers, and all of these fake charges, these Biden indictments. They’re all Biden indictments, political. They indicted — they want to arrest their political opponents. Only third-world countries do that, banana republics. So, ready? I never said this to anybody. I was given the option. I could’ve done a pardon of myself. You know what I said? “I have no interest in even thinking about it.” I never even wanted to think about it. And I could’ve done it. And all of these questions you’re asking me about, the fake charges, you wouldn’t be asking me because it’s a very powerful, it’s a very powerful thing for a president. I was told by some people that these are sick lunatics that I’m dealing with. “Give yourself a pardon. Your life will be a lot easier.” I said, “I would never give myself a pardon.”

KRISTEN WELKER:

Even if you were re-elected in this moment?                

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Oh, I think it’s very unlikely. What — what did I do wrong? I didn’t do anything wrong. You mean because I challenged an election, they want to put me in jail? I challenged an election. But, I challenged a crooked election.                

KRISTEN WELKER:

So it’s not on your radar right now?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It was a rigged election. I challenged a rigged election. And now I’m going to win for a third time. And I just hope they have better vote counters.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s move on to foreign policy, Mr. President. I want to talk about the war in Ukraine. I want to, big picture, get a sense of how you see this conflict. Do you see the security of Ukraine as critical to the security of the United States?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Okay. Let me talk about it without interruption. All right? Ukraine would have never happened if I were president. If this election weren’t rigged, Ukraine would have never happened. You would have hundreds of thousands of people, including lots of soldiers, still living. The cities would be flourishing, or at least up. These are cities that can never be rebuilt again, certainly not the way they were, magnificent buildings all ripped down like a demolition site. It would have never happened for two reasons. Number one, and most importantly, Putin has a lot of respect for me. And he wouldn’t have played games. And I told him, “Don’t ever go in.” And he would never have gone in. This was only after I left that this happened. Likewise, President Xi would never ever be talking about Taiwan the way he’s talking about it right now. And they didn’t. They weren’t talking about it. It was only after I left. He would have never gone in. Equally as importantly, oil prices would have been at $40 a barrel instead of $110 a barrel. So he wouldn’t have been able to afford going in. He actually is the only nation that made money, because oil has been driven up so high by stupid people like Biden. Biden is an incompetent man. And what happened is oil. In fact, you’re going to hit a new high very soon again. That means Russia — Russia makes money from oil. Russia is going to make a lot of money. And because they’re making a lot of money, there’s no reason for them to settle other than humanitarian reasons. And let’s not assume people are going to be so humanitarian. So, Putin would have never gone in, because oil was at $40 a barrel. And he wouldn’t have been able to afford to have gone in. At $100 a barrel, he made a fortune. And that’s one reason. The other reason he wouldn’t have gone in is because I said, “Don’t go in. Don’t even think about it.”

KRISTEN WELKER:

Just to that key question though, Mr. President, do you think that our security, the United States’ security, is linked to Ukraine’s security?                

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I think that Europe has to do more. We’re in for $200 billion. They’re in for $25 billion. And it affects them more than it affects us. It certainly affects them much more than it affects us.

KRISTEN WELKER:

So you do think that it’s linked in some way?                

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I think Europe is taking advantage of a stupid president.

KRISTEN WELKER:

You’ve probably — 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Look. Look. Biden should say to them, “You have to equalize. You have to catch up.” You know, Europe is about the same size as our economy if you add them all up, add the countries up. It’s about the same size. And Biden should say to them, like I did with NATO — you know, NATO, they all owed money. I said, “Get your money in.” And we had over $430 billion put in almost immediately. And the head of NATO, Stoltenberg, secretary general, nice guy, he said to me, the most amazing thing I’ve ever done — and he said it publicly too. He said, “Bush would come in, make a speech, and leave. Obama would come in, make a speech, and leave. Trump came in and said, ‘You guys aren’t paying your bills.’” And I got them to pay. You know, they asked me something, which hasn’t been reported, but the media knows it. We had a meeting of the 28 countries, at that time 28 countries, and they said to me, “Are you saying, sir,” because I said, “You’ve got to pay your bills,” — “Are you saying, sir, that you won’t protect us against Russia if we don’t pay?” I said, “Sorry to tell you, that’s what I’m saying.” You know what happened? 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Yeah.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

They started sending us money like — and I was never given credit for it. But you wouldn’t even have a NATO if it wasn’t for me.                

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let me ask you, Mr. President, about the strategy

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

But here’s the thing. The European countries have to start paying their share, because we are having to do with Ukraine. Because we are $200 billion. And they’re at $20 or $25 billion. It’s so unfair.                

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let me ask you about your strategy though. Because you have said you want to end this war in 24 hours.  

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Yeah.

KRISTEN WELKER:

You saw the meeting between Kim Jong Un and President Putin. Do you think that complicates your strategy, if you were re-elected, to try to end this war in 24 hours?                

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, look, it would have been easier if the war didn’t start. And you’d have hundreds of thousands of people living, most importantly. But it would have been a lot easier if it didn’t. But I can get it done and I can get it done quickly.                

KRISTEN WELKER:

How do you do it? Can you paint a picture for me?               

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

There’s another example. You talk about Kim Jong — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Can you paint a picture? How does it happen?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– You talk about Kim Jong Un, right? I got along great with Kim Jong Un after the first month or two when we were sparring. But I got along great with him. We were in no danger. There was — President Biden said, and he felt even now, and President Obama told me when we sat down, Obama told me, and Biden still to this day, except I don’t think he knows, he’s only — he can’t put two sentences together. But President Obama told me, “Our biggest threat is from North Korea. We’re going to end up in a war.” We didn’t end up with a war with North Korea. We were going to make a deal. I would say I would have had a deal made with North Korea shortly after the election, had the election not been rigged.

KRISTEN WELKER:

How do you end this war though, talking of deals, how do you end this war in 24 hours?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, I can’t tell you exactly. Because if I did — People understand, if I tell you exactly, I lose all my bargaining chips. I mean, you can’t really say exactly what you’re going to do. But I would say certain things to Putin. I would say certain things to Zelenskyy, both of whom I get along — Don’t forget, Zelenskyy did something that was very honorable. They asked him — It didn’t stop these animals from impeaching me. But, you know, one of those things. They asked him, “Did Trump do anything wrong?” He said, “Absolutely not. It was a very normal phone call.” You can’t say that about Biden’s call, because Biden, what he did was horrible with a prosecutor. But, he said something that was very honorable. He could have grandstanded and said, “Oh, I felt threatened.” He said that “President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong on the phone call.”

KRISTEN WELKER:

Some people hear you say you’re going to end the war in 24 hours and they worry that means President Putin is going to get to keep the territory he’s unlawfully claimed.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, no, no, no. I’d make a fair deal for everybody. Nope, I’d make it fair.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

It doesn’t mean that? It wouldn’t be a win for Putin?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You know, that’s something that could have been negotiated. Because there were certain parts, Crimea and other parts of the country, that a lot of people expected could happen. You could have made a deal. So they could have made a deal where there’s lesser territory right now than Russia’s already taken, to be honest. And you could have made a deal where nobody was killed. They had a deal. They would have had a Ukraine country. Now nobody even knows if Ukraine is going to be totally taken over. I will say this: something’s going on, and it’s not good for Ukraine. Because the news is no longer reporting about the war. The fake news. They don’t report about the war anymore. You don’t find much reporting. That means that Ukraine’s losing. Okay? I see very little reporting from NBC, your network. I see very little reporting from NBC, ABC, from CBS, from anyone about the war. It used to be you’d go and you’d watch, even a couple of months ago, you’d watch all of this great strategy. The Spring Offensive never happened. Ukraine’s Spring Offensive never happened, because they were met with a wall of armaments and bombs.

KRISTEN WELKER:

President Putin’s worried people are losing interest — President Zelenskyy’s worried that people are losing interest in this war, as you’re saying.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, no, I’m just saying — 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, how would — would it be a top priority for you?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I’m not seeing anything about the war anymore. To me, that means that — probably because the press is fake and very discredited — that would mean that -- You know, look, here’s my attitude on the war. I just want people to stop being killed. You know, I was asked by that ridiculous CNN group during my town hall, “Whose side are you on?” I said, “I’m on the side of people stop being killed.” I don’t want to see people killed. They’re being killed by the thousands and thousands and thousands. And that’s the side I’m on, I don’t want — And you know what? People like that answer, to be honest. And I stay with that same answer. I want people to stop being killed. 

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to ask you about something President Putin said about you this week. I don’t know if you’ve seen it. This was very recent. President Putin said, quote, “We surely hear that Mr. Trump says he will resolve all burning issues within several days, including the Ukrainian crisis. We cannot help but feel happy about it.” What do you make of that? Do you welcome this support?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, I like that he said that. Because that means what I’m saying is right. I would get him into a room. I’d get Zelenskyy into a room. Then I’d bring them together. And I’d have a deal worked out. I would get a deal worked out. It would’ve been a lot easier before it started. Essentially, for four years, I kept them from doing anything. Because you know what? I will tell you this. I never said this. Ukraine was the apple of his eye. I said, “Don’t ever do it. Don’t ever do it.” He would have never done it. But again, oil prices. He wouldn’t have done it because of me. But oil prices. The prices were so high that he had so much money. So he had all this money to prosecute the war. The one who drove up the prices was Biden.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Given that President Putin has bombed maternity wards, 20,000 kids kidnapped from Ukraine by Russia. Mass graves.

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It’s all terrible. It’s all terrible.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Do you welcome his support, his all but endorsement?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Look, I had a very good relationship with him. And yet nobody was tougher on Russia than me. I stopped Nord Stream 2. You never heard of Nord Stream 2. That was the pipeline until I got involved. I said, “Nord Stream 2.” People that were sophisticated, military people, and political people never heard of Nord Stream 2. I had it ended. The pipeline was dead. Biden came in and he approved it. There was nobody tougher than me with Russia. And yet I got along with Putin. Let me tell you, I got along with him really well. And that’s a good thing, not a bad thing. He’s got 1,700 nuclear missiles. And so do we. But, look, that’s a good thing. Getting along is okay. But I got along through strength. And the war would have never happened. The war would have never happened. Now what’s happened, it’s so bad, the oil price is so high, it’s hard to get it stopped. The oil price is so high. When he goes above $50 and $60 a barrel, he makes a lot of money on the war. Now, it’s a humanitarian thing. It’s a lot of different reasons. But I will get that war stopped very, very quickly.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to talk about another region that you’ve talked about.

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It’s too bad we have to wait so long.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s talk about another region you talked about: China. If you were to cut a deal between President Putin and President Zelenskyy, do you run the risk of emboldening China to invade Taiwan?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No. Not at all. Because China, he’s another one I got along to, until we had the China virus come in. Once Covid came in, okay? It was like — And I made a great trade deal with China, one of the greatest deals ever made for the farmers and for the manufacturers, $50 billion a year. It was a great deal. I don’t even talk about it. Because once Covid came in, it was, like, I didn’t want to talk about anything. I was a much different person. What happened to this world, not our country, the whole world. What happened with Covid. And it just shouldn’t have happened. It shouldn’t have happened. What happened, what China did to the world was so bad. But I had a great relationship with --

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Would you send troops to Taiwan?

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I had a great relationship with President Xi, a really great relationship. And he was going to stop fentanyl from coming in. He was going to do a lot — He was going to criminalize it if you made it. You know, in China, they have a death penalty for drug dealers. He was going to make that with fentanyl dealers too. But then the election didn’t work out and he never had to do that.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

I know you’ve been asked this, but very quickly, if China were to invade Taiwan, have you made a determination, again, since voters are about to go to the polls, would you send the U.S. military into Taiwan if President Xi were to invade? President Biden says he would.

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I won’t say. I won’t say. Because if I said, I’m giving away — You know, only stupid people are going to give that — I heard the other day, DeSanctimonious said something about he was willing to do this or he was going to do that. I say, “Well, why is he saying the strategy?” You can’t say that. So when you ask me that question, I would never say that. Because you give away all your options.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

But you don’t take it off the table?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I don’t take anything off the table, no.

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to do a border question, if okay, and then move to just a quick final round.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, hold on, hold on. I’ve got a lot of meetings coming up. I mean, we’ve been doing this for —

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Just one or two more questions and we’ll wrap it up.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I can go another couple of minutes.

KRISTEN WELKER:

We’ll do a border–

 FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

But I really, I find it very nice and very challenging. But I can’t — You know, I have all those people waiting.

KRISTEN WELKER:

We’ll do two more.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Okay. Go ahead. Go ahead. 

KRISTEN WELKER:

We’ll do it quick. Because I know that you’re going to want to talk about this. If elected, you say you would order the Defense Department to use special forces to inflict maximum damage on drug cartels. 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I didn’t say that. No. People said I said that.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay, what would you do?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I didn’t say that.

KRISTEN WELKER:

What would you do?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I wouldn’t tell you what I’d do. Why would I say that? Because, again, you don’t want people to know your strategy. Now people said, they leaked and said things that I said this, or I said that, or I was going to hit them with Patriot missiles, the drug dealers in Mexico. But I will — I will say — and horribly — that they kill 250,000 people in the United States every year. You know, you never hear that number. You hear 100,000. I think it’s much more. They destroy families. Because when you lose a son or a daughter to fentanyl, or a wife, or anybody else, but when you lose a son or daughter, your life is destroyed. Their lives are destroyed. They’ve destroyed so many families. It comes through Mexico. Something’s got to be done. If we were in war, we wouldn’t lose 250,000 people. We’re losing more people than you lose in just about any war that we’ve ever had. And we lose them on a yearly basis. Something has to be done. And it has to be done fairly quickly.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Ron DeSantis says he’s in this race to finish the border wall. What do you say to that and to Republican voters?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, I built — I built five hundred miles of border wall. It was great. It was just what — As you know, the border control board, and everybody else. Border patrol, I had them in my office. I wanted to do — We were going to do concrete planks, 40 feet high. They didn’t want that. They wanted to see through it. They want it to be steel, concrete, and rebar. I did everything. I gave them the wall that they wanted. You know, we tested it. We had mountain climbers test the ones that — That’s the wall we built. I built almost 500 miles of wall. We were then going to build another 200 miles of certain areas that all of a sudden people were coming into areas that they couldn’t come into anymore. And we were all set to do that. It was all bought. And all Obama had to do, all Biden had to do — it could be Obama too, because a lot of people think he’s calling the shots, so who knows. But all Biden had to do is go out and put it up. And he not only didn’t put it up, he took it off the site, and they put it in yards hundreds of miles away, so that Texas and Arizona couldn’t get it. I had the safest border in history. I had the best border in history. We had the lowest drug numbers for years, and years, and years, decades. We had the lowest drug numbers. We had the lowest human trafficking numbers. We had the least number of people coming across. All he had to do was go to the beach, like he does all the time. If he went to the beach and didn’t do anything, we’d have a great border right now.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Final question, Mr. President. You have met with prime ministers, kings, queens, dictators. You’ve seen it all. As you think about the possibility of a second term, do you still think that democracy is the most effective form of government?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I do. I do. But it has to be a democracy that’s fair. This democracy is — I don’t consider us to have much of a democracy right now. They indict their political opponents. Free speech is shot, because the press is very dishonest, very dishonest. Even the way you fight me on simple questions like, you know, the border, and this. You fight me so much. And I say, “Why are you fighting me?” Do you know, when I first ran, the approval rating of the media was very high. And now it’s very low. It may be below Congress, which is pretty hard to believe. People understand what’s going on. We need a media that’s free and fair. And frankly, if they don’t have that, it’s very, very hard to straighten out our country.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Did you feel as president you had enough power though? If you were re-elected, would you try to find ways — for example, there’s a report you’re looking into firing potentially people within the federal government who aren’t necessarily perceived to be loyal. Would you need more power if you win?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, just so you understand, that’s what the Democrats do. Okay? They do it in spades.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Would you do that?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

They do it at a level that you wouldn’t believe. I mean nobody has ever done that. No, I wouldn’t do that. I want great people, whether they’re Republican or Democrat. I want great people. But I want people that love our country, not people that hate our country.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Anything else you’d like to say?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, I think that’s good. I think we did — I think we did a lot.

KRISTEN WELKER:

One last, is there any scenario by which — because Ron DeSantis says if he were elected, he’d have two terms and you’d only have one more term. Is there any scenario by which you would seek a third term in office?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No. Just so you understand, when DeSantis says that, that means he’s not your man. He’s not your man anyway, because he’s a very untalented guy. And he’s proven that. He started out, everybody was talking to him. After I worked them over a little bit, he’s gone down the tubes. I think he’s going to end up being number three or four. He just had a poll today. He was number four. And by the way, the one that was number two was 59 points behind. So, you know, it’s very interesting. But when somebody says, “Eight years. We need eight years.” No. In six months to a year, many of the problems, almost all of the problems that you and I have just spoken about, will be solved. Anybody that says they need eight years, you don’t want that person.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Thank you, Mr. President. I really appreciate it.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Thank you very much. And good luck.

KRISTEN WELKER:

We went all around the horn today. And I appreciate it very much.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Yes, we did.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Thank you.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Good luck for many years.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Thank you. Thank you for giving me a little extra time. I really appreciate it.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Good. Thank you very much.          

KRISTEN WELKER:

Thank you. If you have time, I think we want to get one little shot of us walking together. 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Sure.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Can we just get us walking out together?               

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Yeah, we can do that.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Can we just walk out together?

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, have you thought about a potential running mate if you were to win the nomination?                              

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I like not to think too much about that. You always do a little bit, but I really don’t think it’s time. I want to win. And, you know, it’s very interesting about running mates. When you get down to a vice president, they said, “Nobody’s ever made that kind of a difference. It’s still about the person that’s going to be president.” But it’s an --                                

KRISTEN WELKER:

Are you leaning --                            

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– important decision. 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Are you leaning toward a woman? 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I like the concept, but we’re going to pick the best person. But I do like the concept, yes.

KRISTEN WELKER:

A lot of people noticed when Governor Noem endorsed you there were Trump/Noem signs. Do you have your eye on her?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I do. I think she’s fantastic. She’s been a great governor. She gave me a very full-throated endorsement, a beautiful endorsement actually. And, you know, it’s been a very good state for me. And certainly she’d be one of the people I’d consider, or for something else maybe. But we have a lot of people. We have a lot of great people in the Republican Party.

 KRISTEN WELKER:

A lot of your supporters are asking when I’m out on the trail, “When are we going to see the first lady out on the trail?”

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Oh, I see. She’s right now with Barron in school. She loves that boy. And she’s very popular. She actually is. Oh, and she’ll be with us. She’s very, very supportive.

KRISTEN WELKER:

We’ll see her on the trail, soon?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Yes. Soon? Yeah, pretty soon. When it’s appropriate, but pretty soon. She’s a private person, a great person, very confident person. And she loves our country very much. She’ll be, she’ll be — at the appropriate time she’ll be out there. And honestly, I like to keep her away from it. It’s so nasty and so mean. And a lot of it’s me. I say, “Just, I don’t want you coming. It’s such a nasty situation.” But when we have rallies, the rallies are bigger than ever, better than ever. You saw in South Carolina we had 82,000 people, the biggest rallies we’ve ever had. There’s a spirit in the country now the likes — look, 2016 was incredible. 2020 was actually much better. We got many more votes, millions and millions more votes. But I’ve never seen spirit like I see right now. And I really believe part of that is maybe because they love what we’re saying, but a big part of it is that our country is doing so badly. Our country is doing so badly with the borders, with the military, with the lack of respect all over the world. And I think that probably adds to what we’re doing.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Can I ask you a question? I don’t think you’ve ever gotten this question. But it’s been reported that you left a note for President Biden when you left office.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It’s true.

KRISTEN WELKER:

It’s true?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Yeah.                              

KRISTEN WELKER:

Can you give us a little sense of what you said?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You know, it’s interesting. He actually said it’s up to me to do, and I actually think it’s up to him to do. I left him a note. I think it was very — it was a nice note. I took a lot of time in thinking about it. I’d love him to do a great job, even if it was very bad politically. I would rather have him have wonderful borders, have no wars, have no Ukraine problems, which, you know, to a large extent was caused by him. Because if you looked at the rhetoric before that war started and the things that were said, I would much rather be in a position where the country’s doing great now, we had him as a president. But the country’s doing horribly. I don’t think the country’s ever been so disrespected. So many bad things are happening.

KRISTEN WELKER:

When you look at the polls and you see that the majority of voters don’t want to see President Biden run again, and frankly they don’t want to see you run again —

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It’s wrong. See, that’s --                

KRISTEN WELKER:

– Mr. President --                                

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– where you’re wrong.

KRISTEN WELKER:

What do you make of those polls?                               

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, I just looked at a poll, and the Republican Party, 89% want me to run. And that’s the highest number that they’ve ever had. That’s higher than Ronald Reagan. The general poll, I mean, I think they love my policy. A lot of people say they love my policy but they don’t necessarily like me. I think they do like me. So in the Republican Party, I’m 89, 90, 92%. There’s a big lovefest going on. And when you look at these people running, they’re at 2%, 1%, 5%. One’s at 9%, DeSanctimonious. But, I’m at, you know, beating them by 60, 70 points. It’s unprecedented. Nobody’s ever seen a thing like that. And the voters themselves, I think they’re going to be very happy. Look, we have to turn our country around and very — I said it before: We have to make America great again.                                

KRISTEN WELKER:

What do you make of the age issue? Should there be an age limit to running for president?                                

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, but there should be a competency. I’m all for the test. You know, I took a test two years ago, three years ago. And as the doctors said -- and it was in front of doctors and a whole big deal at Walter Reed, which is an incredible place. And I aced it. I get everything right. I’m all for testing. I frankly think testing would be a good thing. A lot of people say it’s not constitutional to do it. But I would be for testing, to test to make sure everyone’s just fine. But a lot of people say that can’t happen because of Constitution.

KRISTEN WELKER:

What do you say to people who say, “It is time for a new generation of leaders in this country?”

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, it’s always time for a new generation. But, you know, some of the greatest world leaders have been in their 80s. I’m not anywhere very near 80, by the way. And Biden’s not too old. I don’t think Biden’s too old. But I think he’s incompetent, and that’s a bigger problem. I don’t think 80 is old. I know people that are 89. I know a person 94, 95 who’s 100%. Bernie Marcus, take a look at Bernie Marcus, Home Depot. I mean, he has been amazing for so many years. He’s 95 years old. It’s really a level of competency, not the age.                                

KRISTEN WELKER:

You will be in your 80s if you’re reelected. Does that concern you at all?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, I will be toward the end. No, because my father lived much longer than that. My mother lived much longer than that. So genetically, that’s a good thing.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Anything else you want to say, Mr. President?

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, I just wish you a lot of luck. You’re going to have --

KRISTEN WELKER:

Thank you.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– great success —

KRISTEN WELKER:

Thank you, Mr. President.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– I predict.

KRISTEN WELKER:

I really appreciate it. Thank you for all of this time. I know it’s a busy day and a busy time. And we really --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It’s okay.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– appreciate it.

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Thank you very much.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Thank you.       

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Good luck with everything.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Thank you. Hopefully one of many interviews --

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It’s true.         

KRISTEN WELKER:

Appreciate it. 

FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Thank you very much.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Appreciate it. Thank you.